BARRA Inc., Berkeley, Calif., and Standard & Poor's Corp., New York, unveiled growth and value subindexes for the S&P SmallCap 600 stock index, the first report showing considerable difference in the returns of the two.
From Jan. 1 through Aug. 30, the new S&P SmallCap/BARRA Value Index returned 12.22%, while the new S&P SmallCap/BARRA Growth Index returned 7.62% for the same period.
The entire S&P 600 index was up 9.97% for the period.
The S&P 600 index, launched in October 1994, has 600 stocks with a total market capitalization of $257 billion as of Aug. 30.
The new small value index will contain higher book-to-price companies, while the new small growth index will contain the rest of the stocks. Both indexes will be rebalanced semiannually.
"Investment managers and plan sponsors have found style benchmarks to be very useful," noted Al Neubert, director of S&P's domestic indexes, in a statement.
Returns on the new indexes for various time periods are available free on BARRA's World Wide Web site - http: www.barra.com.
